Newly-elected Swapo Women's Council Secretary, Petrina Haingura, said yesterday their recent congress asked the Government to reconsider the policy of automatically promoting learners in Grades 1 to 7 and to include subjects that enhance their entrepreneurial skills in the school curriculum.

The Ministry of Education has long stopped failing the learners as, it is claimed, this kills their resolve to move forward.

Education Permanent Secretary Vitalis Ankama earlier this year called on the public not to call learners who repeat grades 'failures' because they will see themselves as such and refuse to make an extra effort for promotion.

Each year the high failure rate in Grades 10 and 12 has been partly blamed on automatic promotion in some junior grades.

However, Ankama said students who repeat and those promoted automatically were supposed to be given more attention and their progress monitored to avoid more failures.

The policy also calls on schools to give extra classes in the afternoon (also called compensatory teaching) to learners who repeat and those who continue to be promoted.

The 1999 Presidential Commission on Education suggested that parents be consulted before children were promoted or told to repeat their classes.

"If they (parents) feel that a learner will not benefit by being promoted to the next grade, the learners can then be allowed to repeat," Ankama said.

He said the Ministry was aware of the weaknesses of the education system and had come up with the 15-year strategic plan called Education and Training Sector Improvement Programme (Etsip).

Etsip outlines education priorities over the next 15 years and how authorities intend to improve the service.

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